Anniversary

19 years ago today I made the best decision of my life.

I married this amazing man right here who blesses my life each and every day.

I am super lucky to have him.

And he is a really good kisser :)  

Last Blue Jeans Week of 2011

The last week of 2011 pictures. . .

Monday:  Santa left us with some pretty cool new bikes, and our weather has been nice enough that the kids have ridden them every day since.

Tuesday:  Grandpa teaching Miss A how to drive--drive!!!  I try not to think about that too often--14 year olds can drive legally in our state--crazy!

Wednesday:  Mr J had two things he requested on his new bike from Santa--a basket and a bell.  Santa found the cool black zipper "basket" and the silver bell.  You can hear the bell all up and down the street when he goes riding.  He loves that bell!  He says when he rings it he is saying "Hi!"

Thursday:  Mr J hanging out and playing with his Uncle.  Love it when family is in town to play with!

Friday:  Ben and I got away for our 16th anniversary.  We went to one of those themed room hotels.  We had the Presidential Suite where you walk into this library and then one of the shelves in the library is a door and opens to the room and jacuzzi tub.  So fun!

Saturday:  New Year's Eve was celebrated at our friends' house with yummy Chinese food and lots of Just Dance on the Wii.  Ben, Miss A, Miss O, and our friends get into it.  We were planning on staying until midnight, but about 10 everyone was about asleep, so we set off some fire works and were home by 10:30. 

Happy New Year!  Welcome 2012!

Daily December 28: My gift to Ben

Today my sweetie and I are celebrating our sweet 16.  16 years of marriage.  16 years of love, fun, sweat, tears, laughter, and everything in between.  They have been the 16 best years of my life, and I wouldn't exchange them for anything.  I am looking forward to another 50 plus to come :)  Sure love you sweetie!

For Christmas I wanted to do something extra special for Ben.  My dad is a professional artist and a retired college art professor.  He does private commissions all the time, but he has never done my kids, so for Christmas this year I commissioned my Dad to draw my kids as my Christmas present for Ben.  I loved the way they turned out!  I cried when I saw them.  They are amazing!!!  The below pictures do not do them justice.  I just took them before they were matted and framed with my point and shoot, but you get the general idea and can see how good they are.

Mr J

Miss O

Miss E--love how she has her head cocked

Miss A

My Dad took pictures of the kids and then drew from the pictures he took.  He only works off his own photos that he takes.  My dad is amazing.  Needless to say Ben loved them.  We are excited to hang and display them at home.  Of my 16 years of wedded bliss, these 4 kids are my greatest treasures.

Winter Entertainment

Winter entertainment is definitely different than summer.  Especially if the weather is just plain cold, no fun snow, just cold.  That limits most activities to indoors.  With about 2 weeks off for the holidays, entertaining inside can be a challenge at times.  Here is what we have been doing. . .

Nerf gun practice.  Miss O got the giant gun but all the other kids got a smaller one, so the adults stole the kids' guns for target practice :) 

We went to Rome(just me and Ben)--or as close as we could get without using our passports or buying plane tickets.  We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary after Christmas and stayed here.  Very good winter entertainment.  I would highly recommend it :)

Perler beads.  Are your kids into these?   We have had these for years and the kids still love them.  They use them all the time. 

And after a cold winter day my kitchen counter is full of patterns of Perler beads that need to be ironed. 

Train tracks extravaganza.  Filling a room with train tracks is Mr J's favorite thing, and it is even better when his big sisters help (and even better when they all help clean it up :)

This was a blessing that came in the mail right before Christmas.  It has kept Miss O and Miss A very entertained with what plants they want to get for the summer garden. "Mom, will kiwi grow here?  Mom, what is our hardiness zone?  Mom, can we grow dwarf pomegranates?  How about kohlrabi?"  A what?  They have big lists of what they want to order.  Nothing like planning your summer garden in December to beat the winter blues!  Hope all are being entertained well at your house!  We are still hoping for some snow so we can have a little fun outside entertainment here.

14th Anniversary and baby advice

In between a birthday, Christmas, and New Years, Ben and I celebrated our 14th Wedding anniversary. Wow! 14 years flew by quick! I am so blessed to be married to the most wonderful man in the world. I got very lucky, and he is very smart--he married me :) We were able to get away to one of those themed room hotels which was just amazing! Thanks so much to my parents for watching the kids overnight. It is so nice to get away for a little while. We are blessed. I was reflecting this week over this same week 12 years ago. The week I had my first child was absolutely crazy. The week Miss A was born, Ben and I both graduated from BYU, had our first baby 2 days before Christmas, celebrated Christmas, moved, celebrated our 2nd anniversary, then had New Years. My neighbor at the time, said wow, we were hitting 3 of the 5 most stressful events in life being --birth, death, job change, moving, divorce. Yeah, we hit 3 in one week. Crazy! Then the week my second child was born Ben graduated from grad school, we had our 2nd baby, we moved, and Ben started his first job. Crazy week, and again we hit 3 of the 5 most stressful life events, so when I had my 3rd and 4th babies, and the only things we did those weeks was have a baby, and I was thinking this was pretty easy! So, my baby advice is having a baby in a week is enough stressful events for one week, just focus on that. I learned from experience and some days I look back and wonder how I survived :) But I did, and I am grateful. I guess with your first child you have no idea what to expect, so you don't know any better, and the 2nd was just like the first, so I figured it was normal, but with 3 and 4, I figured out how crazy we had been :) Live and learn. Life is good.